Victoria Park community can learn handy skills at Repair Lab

COMMUNITY members will be able to bring broken items from home and get them fixed at the inaugural Repair Lab in Victoria Park.

Items ranging from toasters to bikes and everything in between can be brought to the Vic Park Mini Lab on October 7.

While similar initiatives are popular in Europe and the US since the movement started in Amsterdam in 2009, and a few have popped up in the eastern states in the past few years, this will be Perth’s first.

The initiative was started by Lathlain resident Flavia Pardini and Swanbourne resident Wilma van Boxtel after they attended the Advanced Earth Carers course offered by the Mindarie Regional Council in July.

Ms Pardini said the idea of the Repair Lab was to encourage people to create less waste and to match people with broken items with people who could fix them.

“It’s also a chance for people to learn new skills and to extend the life of items that some people have thought about throwing away,” she said.

“We’ll have people with the skills to repair electric items, bikes, sewing machines, jewellery and furniture.”

Ms van Boxtel said she hoped the event was a success and inspired more people to hold similar events.

“It will be a one-off event to test the waters and encourage people to get involved and multiply the labs all over Perth”, she said.